In the beginning was the kit lens. And it was OK. With it I learned how to use my DSLR. I had never even had a film SLR before, so there was a lot to learn. Eventually I wanted my lenses to reach further so I invested in the Tamron 55-200mm. I was ecstatic at all the subjects I would now capture which were previously beyond my grasp. Birds and squirrels were no longer just small blips in my images. But, there were some issues with the lens. It was very loud when it focused and it was slow to autofocus. I would often lose the shot I was looking for by the time it finished focusing.

Photojojo puts together a page of my most interesting photos from a year ago and sends me an email twice a month.  I share it here with my readers.

Recently, when I started up Opera, it updated to 10.5.  I noticed a huge cosmetic change.  Observe:

[caption id=“attachment_3272” align=“aligncenter” width=“480” caption=“Opera 10.5 new gui”] [/caption]

Yes, they have copied the GUI setup from Chrome.  The tabs are now above the address bar.  Now, they still have a separate search bar like Firefox, but this is a pretty big change.  Also, although I can’t share it in a screenshot, they have changed the tab animations so they are really slick like in Chrome.  Overall, the animations are one of those things that really add to the experience without doing much.  It just feels nice to have things slide in and out rather than pop into existence.  They also seem to have REALLY sped up the startup to the point where Opera is once again a joy to use.  They also made a change to the way the text searching works:

Just wanted to remind my loyal readers so they remember it’s April Fool’s Day when they see awesome stuff like this.

With all apologies to Dave’s masculinity, I’ve gone with a flower again.  I just felt it was perfect for April.

Click on the following and save it if you have a square monitor:

[caption id=“attachment_3253” align=“aligncenter” width=“400” caption=“April 2010 - 1024x768 - for square monitors”] [/caption]

Click on the following and save it if you have a wide screen monitor:

[caption id=“attachment_3254” align=“aligncenter” width=“480” caption=“April 2010 - 1680x1050 - for wide monitors”] [/caption]

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“The BSO Warms up for the Concert”] [/caption]

Danielle and I recently went to see " Peter and the Wolf" at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.  Danielle and I both grew up watching the Disney animated adaption of “Peter and the Wolf” and we loved the idea of being able to listen to the music as performed by the BSO.  I don’t care how amazing the speakers are in your home theater system, nothing sounds as amazing as the orchestra.

When I flew to Tampa last week, there was a magazine cover that claimed the days of free professional content over the Internet were over.  The cable companies had a way, it claimed, to control the programs available and keep us paying >$100/month for cable.  I didn’t read the article, but I have a guess at how they might do this.  Comcast is currently attempting to buy NBC (if the Justice Department doesn’t have anything to say about that) and NBC has a stake in Hulu.  So, Comcast could limit Hulu to existing cable customers or they could limit the content to make Hulu no longer that important.  Already, changes are afoot that have made Hulu less attractive.  The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are no longer available via Hulu.  Whether or not this is part of the same agenda (getting people to pay for cable) isn’t important.  The less programming available in one place, the less important Hulu is.  But if they succeed I will simply stop watching TV.

My late March Photojojo.  (They select the most interesting photos I took a year ago)

I’m a big Tim Burton fan and I also tend to like his casting of Johnny Depp.  But I’m no fanboy:  I found Tim Burton’s take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to be worse than the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  The first thing I have to get off my chest and the thought that was pervasive in my mind nearly to the point of preventing my enjoyment of the movie is that this movie should really have been titled Return to Wonderland.  If you’re into movies, you probably already knew this, and so did I.  But I can imagine lots of people who just see a commercial or see the name and think it’ll be a live action version of the old Disney movie.  (It doesn’t help that Disney is behind this version as well)  So, in this version, we have an adult Alice about who runs away from her marriage proposal and into the rabbit hole.